Category: Reflections

  • In Memoriam

    Dwight and I sat in his small apartment and talked about our memories from Pine Street, the neighborhood we had first become friends and neighbors.  He was grinning in a mischievous way and I knew something good was coming.  “When I first met you, you were juggling outside, and I thought,” he paused to actually chuckle, “Wow,…

  • Protected: The Resurrection

    There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

  • Ashes to Ashes

    This Monday our family went to the funeral of Uncle Ron, whom I barely knew. An uncle twice removed, we had met perhaps four times in life: his daughter’s wedding, my wedding, and two family reunions. Our conversations were brief but good. The first one was him telling me how much he was looking forward…

  • Scum of the World

    I could hear the cussing from inside the room and noted the awkward glances of nearby nurses and staff who turned to look and gawk.  Even though I only sat a few feet outside the door, I ignored the increasingly loud litany of expletives and deliberately focused on the screen in front of me.  He was my patient and I was doing my…

  • Segregation

    It has been about a year since we moved out of the “inner city.”  It’s an experience we are still processing with many mixed feelings, among them relief, disappointment, and shame.  It is a relief to be able to walk around the block without fear of hearing gunshots, to sleep at night with working heat and running water…

  • Failing Faithfully: Created, Fallen, and Waiting

    Failing Faithfully: Created, Fallen, and Waiting

    [This is an advance post in a series from the ESN blog.  You can find the first part here or here.] In the first post of this series, I was ruminating about a patient who had a rapid decline in health and social circumstances, culminating in a recent scan that showed the possibility of cancer even while…